So, on to the ferry "Ritsurin II" to Kobe. The trip takes almost 5 hours (with one stop at Shodoshima island), but there is always something to be seen, as there is constant traffic in Seto Inland Sea.

But, the best catch was the ferry "Hakuou", presently in Japanese government service, which I saw only a couple of days before berthed at Aioi, and thought that she was just languishing there. Now, however, she presented herself in her full glory:

I got back to Himeji with some time to spare before my flight back, so the plan was to go to Akashi bridge again to see the traffic; failure to verify the shinkansen timetable from Himeji station made sure that this plan did not materialize.

I took 3,200+ photos (not all of them ships related, obviously), so the ones I've uploaded here make 1 percent of the total number, something of a "concentrate" of my trip.

Starting from the clarification: a hobby is a hobby only if it does not involve monetary compensation, IMHO.

So, I don’t get paid for my ship spotting trips – even if I (obviously) use free time available on my (few and far between) business trips to take photos of ships.So, on with another 2-day trip to Japan.

I started at Onomichi, taking the ferry to Tsuneishi, to see Onomichi shipyard, as well as Tsuneishi shipyard.

Then, a short train ride to Mihara, where I was supposed to take a ferry to Setoda, and then a cab to Takaneshima island, overlooking Imabari shipyard. That is, until I saw an ad for the “Rabbit Island” Okunoshima. I was not very much into those cute little pests, but I realized that the boat trip to Okunoshima would take me much closer to Imabari shipyard, which was crawling with new K-Line container carriers.

Then, ferry to the main coast, where I took the wrong train, which did not take away too much of my short winter daylight time, but was enough for the weather to change when I arrived to Kure, taking a ferry from Hiroshima. So, instead of the sun shining directly on the ships at JMU shipyard, I got something close to a blizzard. Anyway, some “Birds” were still there:

Then, the ferry proceeded to Matsuyama on Shikoku Island, arriving already after dark. A two-hour train ride took me to Marugame, and a hotel with a nice Japanese style hot bath; as this time was not considered the high season, it was possible to get a room for about 50$. So, that was Day 1.

It will be a busy next year for me to go around those areas, because new container ships will come from Kure(ONE), Mihara(Yang Ming), Marugame(EVERGREEN),Saijo(EVERGREEN),Imabari(EVERGREEN, not big one but feeder).

Vlad....Great travel log...! Your experiences in Japan substantial. You manage to cover a lot of territory in a short period of time. It reminded me of some of mine years gone by. Decades ago (1980) I visited Japan riding the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Fukuoka (Hakata Station)-Island of Kyushu. Stayed in Ryokan's various places on the Island (Beppu/Miyazaki/Kagoshima, etc.). Back in the day (era of print film /slides) it was expensive to process photos, etc. Now, most of my stuff somewhat deteriorated. However, still Have a some old prints and Kodachromes (in carousels) stashed somewhere in the house. Must find them and see if anything of interest worth converting..?Enjoy looking at your uploads from your side of the globe.Brgds....Andre